Fashion's slaves

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SlauGS.

BY

B. O. FLOWER.

Richly Illustrated with Six Photo-
gravure and Twenty-five
Text Cuts.

F^rioe-- IS Cei^ts.

BOSTON, MASS.:

ARENA PUBLISHING CO.

Copley Square.

1892.

The Rise of the

Swiss Republic

By W, D. ncCRACKAN, A. M.

With Large Colored Map and Full-Page Portrait of the Author.

T

HE Arena PuBLTSHi>rG Compaxy take great
pleasure in announcing that they have just
issued a brilliant history of the Swiss Re-
public, which deals in a popular yet scholarly
manner with this ideal republic, which is attracting
the attention of thoughtful Americans as is no
other foreign nation in the world to-day. The
author has devoted five years of careful study to
this work. A large portion of this time has been
spent in Switzerland, and every important locality
has been visited and studied that a clear and in-
W. D. MccitACKAN, A. M. telligent idea of the events described might be
presented. The archives of the little republic have
yielded much information little known even to the continental reader. This
work is scholarly, yet written in a popular style, and will be a delight alike
to the student and general reader. It is also of special value to thoughtful
Americans, as it contains comparative chapters where the two republics are
contrasted. -

SPECIAL FEATURES.

AMONG the special features of this volume are chapters on the recent
experimental innovations made by the Swiss Republic, the revised
Constitution of Switzerland (1874), a general reference index to
works by Swiss authorities, and a handsomely colored map of Switzerland.

It contains over four hundred images, printed from new and handsome type
on a fine quality of heavy paper. The margins are wide, and the volume is
richly bound in cloth.

PRICE, POST=PAID, $3.00.

Address all orders, ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY, Copley Square, Boston, Mass.

F=OR SKUB BV THE TRKDB.
XXX

FASHION'S SLAVES.

BY

/

/A-

B; O. FLOWER, ^

Editor of the "Arena.

ILLUSTRATED.

^Hren^Pres^^

BOSTON, MASS.

THE ARENA PUBLISHING CO.,

COPLEY SQUARE.

1892.

\s

X

0^

r-

L

I 1 -J

FASHION'S SLAVES.

BY B. O. FLOWER.

The last session of the International Council of "Women
discussed no question of greater importance to civilization
than that of dress reform. The fact that this world's con-
gress, repi-esenting the most thoughtful, conscientious, and
broad-minded women of our age, has taken up this subject
with a firm determination to accomplish a revolution which
shall mean health and happiness to the oncoming generation,
is itself a prophecy pregnant with promise of a substantial
and enduring reform. It will not be surprising if in the near
future it is found that this earnest though somewhat timid
discussion marked a distinct step in the world's progress ;
certainly it was the most significant and authoritative utter-
ance from united womanhood that has yet been made touch-
ing a problem which most vitally affects civilization.

To the student of sociology nothing is more perplexing or
discouraging than society's persistency in blindly clinging to
old standards and outgrown ideals which can no longer
be defended by reason ; and this is nowhere more marked
than in the social world where fashion has successfully
defied all true standards of art, principles of common
sense, rules of hygiene and what is still more important,
the laws of ethics which underlie all stable or enduring civi-
lizations.

At the very threshold of this discussion, I ask the reader
to, as far as possible, divest his mind of all prejudice arising
from preconceived opinions, and view in a perfectly candid
and judicial manner this problem upon which the last word
will not be spoken until woman is emancipated. As long as
free discussion is tabooed and conservatism finds it possible
to dismiss the question with a flippant jest, a ribald joke, or
a basely unjust imputation, the old order will stand ; partly
because woman feels her helplessness and largely because so
few people stop to trace cause and effect or patiently reason
upon results of the most serious character. Conservatism is

strongly entrenched in the minds of the millions, and to a
certain degree mental lethargy broods over the world. It
is true that in woman's sphere to-day mental activity is
more marked than in any other age, and the best brains and
most thoughtful women of our time are boldly denouncing
the bondage of fashion and bravely pleading for such radical
reforms in dress as will secure to womanhood liealth and
comfort, while being genuinely artistic and graceful, breath-
ing true refinement and conforming to cssthetic principles
rather than the caprice of fashiou. To me there is some-
thing infinitely pathetic in the brave protests that have
from time to time flashed from the outraged sensibilities of
those who represent the very flower of American womanhood,
when discussing this subject, for running through their
almost every utterance is the plaintive note of helplessness,
mingled with the consciousness of the justice of the cause for
which they plead. The talented and universally respected
Mrs. AblxT, Woolson Gould some years ago thus gave ex-
pression to her feelings when writing of the long, heavy,
disease-producing skirts of women :

Do wliat we will with them, they still add enormouslj' to the
weight of clothing, prevent cleanliness of attii'e about the ankles,
overheat by their tops the lower portion of the body, impede loco-
motion, and invite accidents. In short, they are uncomfortable,
unhealthy, unsafe, and unmanageable. Convinced of this fact by
patient and almost fruitless attempts to remove their objectionable
qualities, the earnest dress-reformer is loath to believe that skirts
hanging below the knee are not transitory features in woman's
attire, as similar features have been in the dress of men, and surely
destined to disappear with the tight hour-glass Avaists and other
monstrosities of the present costume. . . . Any changes the
wisest of us can to-day propose are onl}'- a mitigation of an evil
which can never be done away till women emerge from this vast
swaying, undefined, and indefinable mass of drapery into the
shape God gave to His human beings.

Mary A. Livermore voices a sad and terrible truth when
she obserA'es :

The invalidism of young girls is usually attributed to every
cause but the right one ; to hard study — co-education — which,
it is said, compels overwork that the girl student may keep up
Avith the young men of her class ; too much exercise, or lack of
rest and quiet at certain periods when nature demands it. All

the while the physician is silent concerning the glove-fitting, steel-
clasped corset, the heavy, dragging skirts, the bands engirding
the body, the pinching, deforming boot, and the ruinous social
dissipation of fashionable society. These will account for much
of the feebleness of young women and girls. For they exhaust
nervous force, make freedom of movement a painful impossibility,
and frequently shipwreck the young girl before she is out of port.

We have a theory, generally accepted in civilized society, which
we never formulate in s])eech but to which we are very loyal in
practical life. This theory, put in plain language, is as follows :
God knows how to make boys ; and, when He sends a boy into
the world, it is safe to allow him to grow to manhood as God
made liim. He may be too tall or too short, for our notions, too
stout or too thin, too light or too dark. Nevertheless, it is right,
for God knows how to make boys. But when God sends a girl
into the world, it is not safe to allow her to grow to womanhood
as He has made her. Some one must take her and improve her
figure, and give her the shape in which it is proper for her to
grow.

Accordingly, the young girl comes some day from the dress-
maker with this demand : '^ Mnie. (the dressmaker) says

that I am getting into horrid shape, and must have a pair of cor-
sets immediately." The corsets are bought and worn, and the
physical deterioration begins.

Miss Frances E. Willard thus touchingly refers to the bon-
dage of fashion :

" But there came a day — alas ! the day of my youth — on
which I was as literally caught out of the fields and pastures as
was ever a young colt; confronted by a long dress that had been
ma«le for me, corsets and high-heeled shoes that had been l)Ought,
hair-pins and ribbons for my straying locks, and I was told that
it simply ' wouldn't answer ' to ' run wild ' another day. Com-
pany from the city was expected ; I must be made presentable ;
' I had got to look like other folks.'

" That was a long time ago, but I have never known a single
physically reasonable day since that sweet May morning, when I
cried in vain for longer lease of libert}'."

Mrs. Frances E. Russell, whose significant paper read at
the Woman's Council elicited universal approbation, in the
following extract from her able essay in The Arena sounds a
more hopeful note than her illustrious predecessors, for she
is nearer the dawn, and the horizon of woman's freedom is
broadening :

The fiction tliat women have no legs is now fully discredited,
for in the show windows of the largest dry goods stores stand
dummies of the female figure dress-ed only in the combination
undersuit made of wool or silk " tights," covering the whole
body, except the head, hands, and feet. By this time everyone
must know that woman, like man, is a biped. Can anyone give a
good reason why she must lift an unnecessary weight of clothing
with every step she takes,^ pushing forward folds of restricting
drapery and using almost constantly, not only her hands, but her
mental power and nervous enei'gy to keep her skirts neat and out
of the way of harm to herself and others?

Much discussion has been wasted over the question whether a
woman should carry the burden of her voluminous drapery from
the shoulders or the hips. Why must she carry this unnecessary
weight at all ?

Now let us join hands, all lovers of liberty, in earnest co-oper-
ation to free American women from the dominion of foreign
fashion. Let us, as intelligent Avomen, Avith the aid and encour-
agement of all good men, take this important matter into our own
hands and provide ourselves with convenient garments ; a cos-
tume that shall say to all beholders that we are equipped for rea-
sonable service to humanity.

Conservative critics have so frequent!}^ misrepresented
those who have honestly pleaded for dress reform, that it is
no longer safe to be frank, and this fact alone has con-
strained numbers of earnest writers from expressing their
sentiments who have felt it their duty to speak in behalf of
health, beauty, and common sense ; indeed so certain is one
to be misrepresented who handles this subject in anything
like a reasonable and unconventional manner, and so surely
will his views be assailed as improper, owing to the age-long
cast of conventional thought, that were it not that this ques-
tion so intimately affects fundamental, ethical, and hygienic
laws, and bears such a vitally important relation to true
progress, I frankly admit that I doubt whether I should have
the courage to discuss it. But I find it impossible to remain
silent, believing as I do most profoundly that the baleful
artificial standards so long tolerated must be abolished, that
the fetish of the nineteenth century civilization must be
overthrown, and that it is all-important that people be thor-
oughly acquainted with the far-reaching and basic signifi-
cance of this problem, through courageous and persistent
agitation and education, in order that manhood and woman-

From 18C0 to 18C5. The era of hoop-skirts.

structive to life and health,
and degrading to womanhood
have been readily sanctioned by
conventionalism. This antago-
nistic attitude toward any
movement for an improvement
in woman's attire founded on
the laws of health, art, com-
fort, and common sense
was characteristically
expressed in a recent
editorial in a leachng
Boston daily, wherein
the writer solemnly ob-
served :

The simple truth is, the
great majority of the
women appreciate the fact
that it is their missioji
to be beautiful^ and the

hood be brought up to the
ethical plane which marks
enduring civilization. In
the examination of this
subject I desire to very
briefly notice it from
a'sthctie, hygienic, and
ethical points of view. It
is a singular fact
that every effort
made toward a
healthful a n d
common sense
r e f o r m i n
woman's apparel
has been assail-
ed as inartistic
or i m moral;
while fashions at
once disgusting,
indecent, d e -

From 18G0 to 18G5. The hoop-skirt era. The difficult
feat of tying on a bonnet.

dress reformers have never yet devised any gar-
ment to assist the women in fulfilling this mis-
sion.

The author of the above fairly represents
the attitude of conventional thought, — its
servility to fashion, its antagonism to
reformative moves. The implied
falsehood that fashion represents
beauty and art, or is the servant of
sestheticism has been reiterated so
often that thousands have
accepted it as truth.

In order to expose its
falsity, I have repro-
duced in this paper plates
taken from leading
American and English
fashion monthlies during
the past thi'ee decades, in
each of which it is notice-
able that ex- 1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and
, train of sweeping iliineni^ions.

tremes nave

been reached. In 1860-65, the hoop-skirt
held sway, and the wasp waist was typical of
beauty. Then no lady was correctly
attired according to the prevailing idea
who did not present a spectacle cu-
riously suggestive of a moving circus
tent. During this era four or live
fashionably dressed women completely
'\ filled an ordinary drawing-room ; while
the sidewalk was often practically mo-
nopolized by moving monstrosities,
save when in front or behind
the formidable swinging cages
moved escorts, who with
no less servility than
American womanhood
bowed to the frivolous
and criminal caprice of

1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and j.i inndavn "RciVnrlr^n

train of sweeping dimensions. ^^'^ mouem liaDyiOn.

But fashion is nothing if not changeable; fancy not art
guides her mind. What to-day types beauty, is by her
own voice to-morrow voted indecent and absurd. Thus "we
find in the period extending from 1870 to 1875 an entirely
new but none the less ridiculous or injurious extreme pre-
vails. The wonderful swinging cage, the diameter of
which at the base often equaled the height of the encased
figure, has disappeared, being no longer considered desira-
ble or ?esthetic, and in its place we have prodigious bus-
tles and immense trains, by which an astonishing quantity
of material is thrown behind the body, suggesting in some
instances a toboggan slide, in others tlie unseemly hump
on the back of a camel. This is the era of the enormous
bustle and the train of sweeping dimensions.*

When we examine the prevailing styles w^hich marked this
period, we are struck with amazement at the power exerted by
fashion over the intellect and judgment
of society. Imagine the shame and
humiliation of a woman of fashion,
endowed by nature or afflicted by dis-
ease with such an unsightly hump on
the back as characterized the fashion-
able toilet of this period !

Toward the end of the seventies, we
find another extreme reached, which if
possible was more absurd and injurious
than those which

marked
of this
was the
tie-back,
skirts
trains
fashion's
with one

the earl}^ days

decade. This

period of the

or n a r r o w

and enormous

. As in 1860

slaves vied

another in

their effort to cover the
largest possible circular
space, now their ambi-
tions lay in the direction

1870 to 1875. " SiiKge-^ting
bogfian slide ; in others,
the back of a camel."

in some instances a to-
the unseemly hump on

* During this period the ingenuity of man came to woman's rescue, by the
invention of an interesting, and, judging by its popularity, exceedingly serviceable
contrivance known as a dress elevator, whicli enabled ladies to instantly'elevate their
enormous trains when they came to a particularly muddy and tilthy crossing.

10

narrow as

of the opposite extreme:* the skirts must be as

possible even though it greatly

impeded walking, for as will be

readily observed all free use of

the lower limbs was out of the

question during the reign of the

'' tie-back."

The reaction in favor of a
more sensible dress which fol-
lowed was of brief duration.
During this time, however, the
long trains were seldom seen, and
thoughtful women began to hope
that the arbitrary rule of
fashion was over. It was not
long, however, before
the panier period ar-
rived, and what was
popularly known
as the p u 1 1 -
back was a c -
cepted as the
correct style in ,„_„ „, ,...■., , • .

„ . . •' 18<8. The period of the tie-back, narrow skirts, anil enormous

lashion S world. trains.

Of this latter conceit little need be said, for it has so re-
cently passed from view that all remember its peculiarity,
which to the ordinary observer seemed to be a settled

* It was in the midst of the period of the tie-backs that Harper's ZJosor publislied
two striUng cartoons illustrating the poem given below. One represented a poor
man's wife, " The slave of toil," and was i)arheticany powerful in its tidelity to trutli ;
the other, drawn by the powerful Xast, represented a society lady of the day attired in
the reigning tie-back, measuring at the hips a little niore'than double the width a
short distance below the knees. This slave was chained to fashion's column.

SISTER SLAVES.

You think there is littleof kinship between them?

Perhaps not in blood, yet there's likeness of soul ;
And in bondage 'tis patent to all who have seen them

That both are fast held under iron control.
The simjiering girl, with her airs and her graces,

Is sister at heart to the hard-working drudge ;
Twotypes of to-day, as they stand in their places;

Whose lot is the sadder Ileave you to judge.

One chained to the block is the victim of Fashion ;

Her object in life to be perfectly dressed ;
Too silly for reason, too shallow for i)assion.

She i)asses her days 'neath a tyrant's behest.
Thus pinioned and 'fettere<l, and warily moving.

Lest looping sliouUl fail her, or hand come ai)art :
Wliat room is there left her for thinking or loving.'

What noble ambition can enter her heart?

11

determination on the
part of its origina-
tors to render walk-
ing as difficult and
fatiguing as possible,
while fully exposing
the outline of the
wearer's body below
the waist at every
step. What in '60
or '70 would have
been accounted the
height of indecency,
is in the eighties per-
fectly proper in the
fashionable world.
During this time it
was not enough to
have the skirts very
narrow, they must at

The tie-backs of 1878 and 18Ti».

every step give the outline of the limbs
[or as our Minnesota solon Avould put
it, nether limbs], hence we find the pull-
backs in which "• two shy knees ap-
peared clad in a single trouser."

And one, the worn wife of a grizzled old
farmer ;
She kneads the great loaves for the " men-
folks " to eat.
lii the wheat-fields the green blades are spring-
ing like armor;
Afar in the forests the flowers are sweet.
She lifts not her eyes. Within kitchen walls
narrow
Her life is pent \\\). The most hopeless of
slaves,
Though weary and jaded in sinew and marrow.
She never complains. Women rent in their
graves.

Twin victims, for which have wo tenderest
pity—
For mother and wife toiling on till she dies,
Or the frivolous butterfly child of the city.

All blind to the glory of earth and of skies?
Is it fate, or ill fortune, hath woven about you
Strong meshes which ye are too heli)less to
break ?
Shall we scornfully wonder, or angrily flout
you.

Or strive from their torpor your minds to
awake? The pull-back of 188G.

12

Such have been the in-
consistencies, incongruities,
and absurdities of fashion
as illustrated in the past
three decades, in view of
which one may well ask
whether in fashion's eyes
women are such paragons of
ugliness that these ever-
varying styles (introduced,
we are seriously informed,
to conserve to her beauty,)
are absolutely essential, and
by what rule of art can we
explain the fact that the
ponderous hoopskirt was
the essential requirement of
beauty in the sixties and the
enormous bus-
tles demanded
in the seven-
ties. The truth

IK,

all

Fashionable -walking costume early in the
seventies. Woman appreciating the fact
"that It 1^ her mission to be beautiful."
See page 405.

fashion is supreme-
indifferent alike to
laws of art and

et, Venus of old, with your
queenly derision,

How you would disdain
the belle's tawdry ar-
ray!
Free footsteps iititram-
')nel/e<l, cool hand of
decision,
Sweet laugh like bells
jjcaling, were yours in
the day
When you reigned OA-er
men by the' might of
your beauty ;
Ko fetters were o'er you
in body or brain ;
The world would bow
down in the gladness
of duty
Could you but awake in
your splendor again.

Fashionable walking costume in the earlv sixties
Woman appreciating the fact " that it is her mission to
be beautiful." See page 405.

And, Pallas and Venus, if
now you were holding
A talk over womanhood,
what would you say,

13

beauty, health and life, decency and propriety — a fact that
must be patent to any thoughtful person who examines
the prevailing styles of a generation. I submit that the
wildest extremes to which well-meaning but injudicious dress
reformers have gone in the past have been marked by rioth-
ing more inartistic than the costume of the reigning belle in
1860. Each successive decade has been marked by an ex-
treme which, surveyed from the vantage ground of the pres-
ent, is as ridiculously absurd as it has been wanting in beauty
or common sense. Nowhere have the laws of true art been
so severely ignored as in the realm of fashion. Yet this
view of the problem palls into insignificance when we come
to examine the question from the standpoint of health and
life.

One would think that after thousands of years of sickness
and death, with all the advantages of increased education
and a broadening intellectual horizon, we would have
arrived at such an appreciation of the value of health and
the solemn duty we owe to posterity, as to compel this
consideration to enter into our thoughts when we adopted
styles of dress ; yet nowhere is the weakness of our
present civilization more marked or its hollowness so visible,
even to the superficial thinker, as in the realm of fashion,
where every coiisideration of health and eveyi of life, and all
sense of responsibility to future generations are brushed aside
as trivialities not to be seriously considered. In vain
have physicians and ph3-siologists written, lectured, and
demonstrated the fatal results of yielding to fashion. The
learned Doctor Trail in writing on this subject wisely
observes :

The evil effects of tight-lacing, or of lacing at all, and of bind-
ing the clothing around the hips, instead of suspending it from
the shoulders, can never be fully realized Avithout a thorough
education in anatomy and physiology. And if the illustrations *

Tlie words of wise counsel while you were unfoldinir,

If some one should show you these pictures to-day?
I dream of your faces : divinest compassion

Would yearn the poor toiler to pity and save ;
And your hirjreness of scorn would descend on the fashion

Wliich binds, unresisting, the idler a fclave.

* I have reproduced the admirable cuts found in Dr. Trail's physiology, as they
were essential to the understanding of the text quoted, anil also because they con-
vey more vividly than words the injury necessarily sustained by tliose who persist in
outraging nature and violating the laws of their being by improper dress.

14

The iuterual viscera.

here presented should effect the needed reform in fashionable
dress, the resulting health and happiness to the human race would
be incalculable ; for the health of the mothers of each generation

determines, in a very large measure, the
vital stamina of the next. It is obvious
that, if the diameter of the chest, at its
lower and broader part, is diminished
by lacing, or any other cause, to the
extent of one fouith or one half, the
lungs B, B, are pressed in towards the
heart, A, the lower ril^s are drawn
together and press on the liver, C, and
spleen, E, while the abdominal organs
are pressed downward on the pelvic
viscera. The stomach, D, is compressed
in its tranverse diameter; both the
stomach, upper intestines, and liver are
pressed dowiiAvard on the kidneys, M,
M, and on the lower portions of the
bowels [the intestinal tube is denoted
by the letters f, j, and k,] while the
bowels are crowded down on the uterus,
i, and liladder, g. TJivs every vital organ is either functionally
obstructed or mechanically disordered., and diseases more or less
aggravated, the condi-
tion of all. In post-
mortem examinations
the liver has been
found deeply indented
by the constant and
prolonged pressure of
the ribs, in consequence
of tight-lacing. The
brain-organ, ])rotected
by a bony inclosure,
has not yet been dis-
torted externally by
the contrivances of
milliners and raantua-
makers ; but, lacing
the chest, by inter-
rupting the circulation
of the blood, prevents
its free return from the

vessel of the brain, and Anterior view of tliorax The same in afasliionable
. in tlie Venus of Med- corset-wearing lady of

SO permanent conges- jcis. to-day.

15

don of that organ, with constant liability to headache, vertioro,
or worse affections, becomes a "second nature." The vital re-
sources of every person, and all available powers of mind and
body, are measurable by the i-espiration. Precisely as the breath-
ing is lessened, the length of life is shortened; not only this, but
life is rendered correspondingly useless and miserable Avhile it
does exist. It is impossible for an}' child, whose mother has
diminished her breathing capacity by lacing, to have a sound
and vigorous organization. If girls will persist in ruining their
vital organs as they grow up to womanhood, and if women yv\\\
continue this destructive habit, the race must inevitably deteri-
orate. It may be asserted, therefore, without exaggeration, that
not only the welfare of the future generations, but the salvation
of the race depends on the correction of this evil habit. The
pathological consequences of continued and prolonged pressure
on any vital structure are innutrition, congestion, inflammation,
and ulceration, resulting in weakness, waste of substance, and
destruction of tissue. The normal sensibility of the part is also
destroyed. No woman can ever forget the pain she endured
when she first applied the corsets ; but in time the compressed
organs become torpid ; the muscles lose their contractile power,
and she feels dependent on the mechanical support of the
corset. But the mischief is not limited to local weakness and in-
sensibility. The general strength and general sensibility corres-
pond with the breathing capacity. If she has diminished her
" breath of life," she has just to that extent destroyed all normal
sensibility. She can neither feel nor think normally. But in
place of pleasurable sensations and ennobling thoughts, are an in-
describable array of aches, pains, weaknesses, irritations, and
nameless distresses of body, with dreamy vagaries, fitful impulses,
and morbid sentimentalities of mind. And yet another evil is to
be mentioned to render the catalogue complete. Every particle
of food must be aerated in the lungs before it can be assimilated.
It follows, therefore, that no one can be well nourished who has
not a full, free, and unimpeded action of the lungs. In the con-
tracted chest, the external measurement is reduced one half ; but
as the upper portions of the lungs cannot be fully inflated until
the lower portions are fully expanded, it follows that the breathing
capacity is diminished more than one half. It is wonderful how
anyone can endure existence, or long survive, in this devitalized
condition ; yet, thousands do, and with careful nursing, manage to
bring into the world several sickh^ children. The spinal dis-
tortion is one of the ordinary consequences of lacing. No one
who laces habitually can have a straight or strong back. The
muscles being unbalanced become tiabby or contracted, unable to
support the trunk of the body erect, and a curvature, usually a

16

double curvature, of the spine is the consequence. And if any-
thincr were needed to aggravate the spinal curvature, intensify the
compression of the internal viscera, and add to the general de-
formity, it is found in the modern contrivance of stilted gaiters.
These are made with heels so high and narrow that locomotion
is awkward and painful, the centre of gravity is shifted " to parts
unknown," and the head is thrown forwards and the hijDS pro-
jected backwards to maintain perpendicularity.

In speaking of the destructiveness to health caused by
woman's dress, Prof. Oscar B. Moss, M. D., declares :

Although the corset is the chief source of constrahit to the
kidneys, liver, stomach, pancreas, and spleen, forcing them
upward to encroach iipon the diaphragm and comj^ressing the
lungs and heart, its evils are rivalled by those resulting from
suspending the skirts from the waist and hips, by which means
the pelvic oi'gans are forced downward and often permanently
displaced. Now, add to these errors a belt draAvn snugly
around the waist, and we have before us a combination of the
most malignant elements of dress Avhich it would be possible to
invent.

The waist belt enforces the evils which the corset and skirts
inaugixrate. Every proposition of anatomy and physiology bear-
ing u])on this subject appeals to reason. Did the abdominal
organs require for their well-being less room than Ave find in the
economy of nature, less room would have been provided. Natui-e
bestows not grudgingly, neither does she lavish beyond the
requirements of perfect health.

The same laws Avhich govern the nutrition of muscles, apply
also to the vital organs. Pressure that impedes circulation of
blood through them must suppress their functions proportionally.
With the lungs, heart, and digestive organs impaired by external
devices, which force them into abnormal relations, health is
impossible. Eveiy other part of the body — nay, life itself —
depends upon the perfection of these organs. The ancients
fittingly called them the tripod of life.

Consumption, heart disease, dyspepsia, and the multiform
phases of uterine and ovarian diseases are among the natural
and frequent consequences of compressing the internal organs.
Men could not endure such physical indignities as women inflict
upon themselves. Should they attempt to do so, they would not
long hold the proud position of " bread winners," which is now
theirs by virtue of their more robust qualities.

It is difficult to imagine a slavery more senseless, cruel, or
far-reaching in its injurious consequences than that imposed

17

by fashion on civilized womanhood
during the past generation. Her
health has been sacrificed, and in
countless instances her life has paid
the penalty; while posterity has
been dwarfed, maimed, and ener-
vated, and in body, mind, and soul
deformed at its behests. In turn
every part of her body has been
tortured. On her head at fashion's
caprice the hair of the dead has
been piled. Hats and bonnets,
wraps and gowns laden with heavy
l)eads and jet have as seriously im-
paired her health as they have
rendered her miserable ; the tight
lacing required by the wasp waists
has produced generations of invalids
and b e -

Street costume. Spring, 1884.

queathed to
posterity suf-
fering that
will not vanish
for many decades. By it, as has
been pointed out by the authorities
cited, every vital organ in the body
has been seriously affected. The
heart and lungs, by nature protect-
ed by a cage of bone, have been
abnormally crushed in a space so
contracted as to absolutely prohibit
the free action upon which health
depended; while the downward
pressure was necessarily equally
injurious to her delicate organism.
The tightly drawn corset has
proved an unmitigated curse to
the living and a legacy of misery
and disease to posterity. And
this cruel deforming of the most
beautiful of God's creations was
said to be beautiful simply because

Street costuine. Summer, 1891.
(Compare waist M'itli anterior
view of thorax of cor.set-wearing
lady of to-day.) See page 412.

18

fashion willed it. Nor was this all ; enormous bustles and
skirts of prodigious dimension have borne their weight largely
upon that part of her body which above all else should be abso-
lutely free from pressure. By this means the most sensitive
organs have been ruthlessly subjected to down pressing
weights which for exquisite torture and for the abso-
lute certainty of the long train of agony that must
result, rival the heartless ingenuity of the Inquisition of
the Middle Ages. Beyond this generation of debilitated
and invalided mothers, rises a countless posterity robbed
of its birthright of health while yet unborn.* A possible
genius deformed and dwarfed by the weight of a fashionable
dress ; a brain which might have been brilliant rendered
idiotic by the constant pressure of a corset, and the weari-
some weight of a "stylish" dress pressing about the hips ; a
child whose natural capacity might have carried him to the
seat of a Webster or into the laboratory of an Edison, con-
demned to drag a weakly, diseased, or deformed body through
life, with mind ever chained to the flesh, through the heart-
less imposition which fashion imposed on his mother ! What
thought can be more appalling to a conscientious Avoman ?
Yet until a revolution is accomplished and a reign of i-eason
and common sense inaugurated, this crime against the unborn
will continue. But some argue the days of these extremes
are past.

I answer not past, but they are assuming other forms. Since

* In discuf5sing; the solemn duty mothers owe to their offspring, Mrs. Annie Jenness
Miller sensibly observes : —

Are women ifinorant of the mischief they do to their offspring, or are they indif-
ferent to consequences ? Has the true maternal love become extinct, in this age of
advanced civilization, that women ignore all the laws of nature while anticipating
the glory of motherhood? We know not; yet we often see what causes a thrill of
pity in our soul for the future of the child yet unborn : a mother laced within stiff
bones and steel, while the very instincts of being cry out against the sin of it. Surely
every child has a right to be well born! Wealth maybe a grand inheritance, but
health is a better ( ne, as any poor suffering creature will testify, whose misery the
most expensive doctors have been called upon to alleviate without avail. And how
can a child be well born unless its parents observe the laws of life bearing upon the
birth and rearing of children ? It is impossible. If a mother will so clothe herself
that the vitality which properly belongs to her baby becomes exhausted and de-
stroyed, the child is robbed, as a natural consequence, and perhaps the weakened,
jniny, distorted, fretful little creature, who is innocent of the cause of its own sviffer-
ings, will live to become a curse to the world instead of the blessing that it would
have been had rational conditions been observed before its birth.

Tight corsets grudgingly loosened a quarter of an inch at a time, heavy skirts, and
all the evil conditions we are so familiar with, are still retained as the months pass,
bringing ever nearer what should be the very happiest hour of wcmian's existence —
that in which she is to be intrusted with the keeping, training, and guidance of a new
human soul. Perhaps her baby comes into the world dead or deformed, perhaps
deprived of certain of its faculties; or it maybe that it possesses life and all of its
special senses and organs in such a diminished degree that the whole of its future
becomes a pain rather than a joy, while its miserable, puny structure remains a last-
ing reproach to its parents as long as they live.

1878
ViGAKIES OF FASHIOX.

188G
PREVAILIXG STYLES IX AVALKING COSTUMES DUKIXG THE
PAST THIRTY YEARS.
19

20

1890 dawned, the evils in some respects have been aggra-
vated ; for it must not be forgotten that the daughters of the
present decade have, in order to be fashionable, compressed
beyond all healthful bounds the flesh of their arms, retarding
circulation and inviting pneumonia and other ills. And in
order to look s^tylish, thousands of women wear dress waists
so tight that no free movement of the upper body is possible ;
indeed in numbers of instances ladies are compelled to put
their bonnets on before attempting the painful ordeal of
getting into their glove-fitting dress waists. Many young
women to-day, yielding to the spell of fashion, place the
corset next to their flesh, while a still greater number have
merely the thinnest possible undershirt between the flesh and
the corset, after Avhich they tightly draw the dress waist
until it meets. This seems incredible, but it is vouched for
by several ladies of my acquaintance, among whom are
physicians whose large practice among their sisters gives
them peculiar facilities for knowing the absolute facts.
Health, posterity, and all the instincts of the higher self are
ruthlessly sacrificed to the fickle foll}^ of fashion's criminal
caprice. And we must not forget that even now the sweep-
ing train is coming in vogue and correctly attired ladies
must consent to carry the germs of death with quantities of
filth from the streets of our metropolitan cities into their
homes of wealth and refinement. The corset and high-heeled
shoes, the two most deadly foes to maternity and posterity,
are also seen at the present time, on every hand.

If outraged nature could show the procession of mothers
sacrificed on fashion's altar during the past geneiation, or
unveil the suffering and deformity being borne by posterity
at the present time, through this slavery, the world would
be thrilled with an indescribable horror. Health, comfort,
and human life have paid the penalty of a criminal servitude
to the modern juggernaut, before whose car millions of our
women are bowing in abject servility, knowing full well that
at each turn of its wheel new pains or fresh diseases will be
inflicted. And what power controls and gives life to this
mistress of modern civilization? At whose behest is this
crime against reason, life, and posterity perpetrated ? The
cupidity of the shreu'd and unscrupulous mid the caprice of the
shallow and frivolous.

The moral aspect of this subject is even more grave than

21

the hygienic. Anything which injures
the physical body, whether it be licen-
tiousness, intemperance, gluttony, or
vicious modes of dress, is necessarily
evil from an ethical point of view. Not
simply because the law of our being
decrees that whatever drains or destroys
the physical vitality must sooner or later
sap the vital forces of the brain ; but
also because anything is ethically des-
tructive which chains the mind to the
realm of animality, when, unfettered,
it should be unfolding in spiritual
strength and glory. Thus it will be
readily seen that any article of cloth-
ing which presses upon the vitals of the
body so as to cause displacement of the
delicate organism, or so cumbersome
as to cause general fatigue, anything,
as is the case with
throws the body

hio'h

leels,
out

equilibrium, or
cle of dress which
of the

scious

Vagaries of Fashion. A

Vagaries of Fasliion. A belle early in the sixties.

which
of its

any arti- belle in the eighties.

makes the mind ever con-
body by virtue of its
uncomfortableness, is
injurious from an ethical
})oint of view. This fact
-w hu h has been so gen-
eiall} overlooked will be-
come more
a p J) arent,
if for the
sake of il-
lustrati o n
we suppose
for a mo-
ment that
a plant is
end owed
with reas-
o n and
s e nsation,

22

and obeying the general law of its being, and the persua-
sive and inspiring influence of the sun and rain, is strug-
gling to rise heavenward, and give to the radiant world
above its impearled wealth — its gorgeous bloom, its mar-
vellous fragrance and fruit ; but by virtue of the bonds of
a prison-house below, — a small pot or a rocky encasement,
its life work is thwarted, its bloom, perfume, and fruit, if
they come at all, are stunted, limited, and imperfect. For
generations woman's condition has been like that of the
plant, the wealth of her nature has been dwarfed, the mar-
vellous richness of her life has been marred by the impris-
oned conditions of her body, and infinitely more sad and
far-reaching have been the baleful consequences upon mil-
lions of her offspring, dwarfed, weakly, sickly, enfeebled
in body and soul. A another whose thoughts have voluntarily
or involuntarily been held in the atmosphere of the physical
nature, necessarily imparts to her child a legacy of ayiimal-
ity which, like the corpse of a dead being, clings to the soul
throughout its pilgrimage. Terrible as have been fashion's
ravages on woman's physical health, the curse which she
has exerted when the ethical aspect of the case is entertained,
far transcends it.

It is a curious fact that almost all the opposition from
women to proposed reforms in woman's dress comes from
two extremes in societ3^ Those who do no independent
thinking, taking all their thoughts and opinions from the
expressed views of the men with whom they associate,
and the profoundly earnest and thoughtful, but conserva-
tive women of society. The opposition of the former class
is merely the echo of husbands, brothers, fathers, and lovers ;
but the others are moved by conviction, and for this reason
their views are worthy of consideration. They fear that
any radical change will exert an immoral influence. Their
minds are swayed by ancient thought which tliroughout
all ages lias cast its baleful shadow over the brain of the
world. They are held under the spell of a conservatism
which unquestioningly tolerates established institutions and
existing orders, bnt has no confidence in aught that pro-
poses to break with these, even though the new has rea-
son and common sense clearly on its side. Thus time and again
fashions have been tolerated, although known to be morally
enervating and singularly repulsive to all refined sensibilities ;

23

and we shall cease
simply because it is
which we have been

while proposals from without for reforms based on the laAvs
of health and beauty have called forth the most determined
opposition from this conscientious class, merely because the
proposed innovations have not conformed to ideas entertained
by virtue of prevailing fashions, and have been therefore
regarded immoral. And herein lies an important point
to be considered. Anything which is radically unlike pre-
vailing standards or styles to which we have become accus-
tomed will impress most persons as being immodest or
indecent. The ujiusual in dress is usually denounced as
immoral because we are all prone to allow our prejudice to
obscure our reason and o'ersway our judgment. This point
must be recognized before any real reform can be accom-
plished. When humanity has grown sufficiently wise to
reason broadly and view problems on their own merits,
aside from preconceived opinion or inherited prejudice,
real instead of false standards of morality will prevail,

to condemn anything as pernicious
unusual, radically unlike that to

accustomed or revolutionary in its
tendency. Let me make this if possible more apparent by an
illustration, because it bears such ^^ an important

relation to the main issue. If M^ "^sn had for
ages worn long flowing robes, com- f^^y pletely envel-
oping their bodies, but on a
certain day with one accord
exchanged them for a cos-
turns similar to that now
seen throughout the civil-
ized world, society would
experience a distinct
shock ; immoral, indecent,
pernicious, and vulgar
would mildly express the
sentiment of conventional
thought, until the same
society had become ac-
customed to the change.
To us at the present time
it is difficult to conceive
how women of sense and
refinement submitted to

righted photo ly Sarony.

MAKY AXDEUSON AS PAKTHEKIA.

25

the swinging-cage paraphernalia of the sixties, or the Grecian
bend of a later date. Yet in those days the severely plain
skirts of the present would have seemed positively indecent.
It has been necessary to dwell on this thought in order to
sufficiently remove existing prejudice to enable a fair consid-
eration of the question in its broader aspects. I have also
introduced fair examples of prevailing fashions during the
past generation and reproductions of Greek, Shakespearian
and other simple costumes worn at the present time by the
queens of the stage, to show by comparison how infinitely
more graceful, beautiful, comfortable, healthful, and by their
very elements of comfort and healthfulness, ethically supe-
rior, are these costumes to those which conventionalism sanc-
tioned in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Is there
anj'thing immodest, indecent, or suggestive of impropriety
in Mar}^ Anderson in the graceful Grecian costume of
Parthenia, presented on the preceding page ? Of the tens of
thousands of people who have witnessed the performances of
Madame Modjeska, Miss Anderson, Julia Marlowe, or Mar-
garet Mather in the costumes given in this paper, it is not
probable that a perceptible number have seen aught improper
or even injuriously suggestive, notwithstanding they are so
radically unconventional. Surely no mind accustomed to
think broadly and view problems on all sides, and unaccus-
tomed to revel in the sewer of sensualism would see in the
attire of these estimable ladies aught but costumes at once
graceful, refined, and apparently infinitely more comfortable
and healthful than those represented in any of the fashion
plates I have reproduced, and which millions of women of
good sense have under the stress of conventionalism been
compelled to wear. Let us compare Miss Anderson's Grecian
costume with the dress of a society belle in the seventies,
which required from twenty to thirty yards of material, and
when completed and fitted transformed the wearer into a
monstrosity with an unsightly hump on the back, and a street
cleaner of immense dimensions trailing for several feet in her
rear.

From artistic, hygienic, economical, and ethical points of
view, to say nothing of conmion sense and comfort, is not
the simple and beautiful costume of Parthenia incomparably
superior to that which marked the second decade of the past
generation? Would not woman to-day clotlied in close-

From copurtgiued pliotu byFalk, N. Y.

JULIA MARLOWE.

HELENA MODJESKA.

MARGARET MATHER.

•26

HELENA MODJESKA.

27

fitting garments of silk or woollen fabric, with an outer robe
or loose dress fashioned something after the order of the
ancient Grecian or Roman pattern, be far more beautiful than
she is as a slave to fashion's fickle fancy, while the require-
ments of life, health, and comfort would be fully met ? Again,
let us compare one of the plates of the sixties with its won-
derful expanse of skirt to tlie simple, graceful attire of Miss
Marlowe as Viola in the " Twelfth Night," and laying aside
all preconceived opinions (with the influence which we have
seen the unusual plays in fashioning our ideas of propriety,)
does not our reason and common sense sustain the view that
the latter is far more refined, simple, and less vulgarly
ostentatious than the inflated garment of the early sixties?
Or if we compare the pictures of Modjeska and Miss Marlowe
in Shakespearian roles, or that of the former in the neat and
graceful gathered gown, and Miss Mather in the simple
peasant dress, are they not one and all far more chaste,
artistic, sensible, and healthful than the hoop-skirt, bustle,
and train, or the tie-back ? Do not, however, understand
that I advocate the introdnction of any of these costumes.
It is for woman and woman alone to decide what she will
wear, and in this paper I am merely seeking to second the
splendid work that has by her been inaugurated, and by
speaking as one of the younger men of this decade, to
voice what I believe American womanhood will find to be
the sentiment of the rising generation, whenever she makes
a concerted effort to emancipate herself from the slavery
of Parisian fashions. There are many evidences that the
hour is ripe for a sensible revolt, and that if the movement is
guided by wise and judicious minds it will be a success. Two
things seem to me to be of paramount importance.

(1.) The commission of women acting for the Council
should decide definitely upon the nature and extent of
changes desired. The ideal costume should be clearly
defined and ever present in their mind. But it would be
exceedingly unwise to attempt any radical change at once.
This has been more than anything the secret of the partial
or total failures of the movements of this character in the
past. The changes should be gradually made. Every
spring and autumn let an advance step be taken, and in order
to do this an American fashion commission or bureau should
be established, under the auspices of the dress reform com-

MISS MARLOWE AS VIOLA.

29

mittee of the Women's Council, which at stated intervals
should issue bulletins and illustrated fashion plates. If the
ideal is kept constantly in view, and every season slight
changes are made toward the desired garment, the victory
will, I believe, be a comparatively easy one, for the splendid
common sense of the American women and men will
cordially second the movement. Concerted action^ a clearly
defined ideal toward which to move, and grad^ial changes —
these are points which it seems to me are vitally important.
One reason why the most ridiculous and inartistic extremes
in fashion have been generally adopted is found in this policy
of gradual introduction, a fact which must impress anyone who
carefully examines the fashions of the past. First there has
been a slight alteration, shortly becoming more pronounced,
and with each season it has grown more marked, although
perhaps not for four or six years has the extreme been reached.
At every step there have been complaints from various
quarters, but steadily and persistently has the fashion been
pushed until it reached its climax, after which we have had its
gradual decline. This was the history of the hoop skirt and
the Grecian bend, and has been that of most of the extremes
which have marked the past, and we can readily believe that
in no other way could womanhood have been insnared by such
supreme and criminal folly as has characterized fashion's
caprices in unnumbered instances.

(2.) Another very essential point is the proper education
of the girls of to-day, for to them will fall, in its richest
fruition, the blessings of this splendid reform if it be properly
carried on, and if they be everywhere instructed to set
health above fashion, and seek the beauty of Venus de Medici
rather than the pseudo beauty of the wretched, deformed
invalid, who at the dictates of the mode]-n Babylon has
trampled reason and common sense, health and comfort, the
happiness of self and the enjoyment of her posterity under
foot. Teach the girls to be American ; to be independent ;
to scorn to copy fashion, manners, or habits that come
from decaying civilizations, and which outrage all sentiment
of refinement, laws of life, or principles of common sense.
The American girl is naturally independent and well
endowed with reason and common sense. Once shown the
wisdom and importance of this American movement, and she
will not be slow to cordially embrace it. In many respects

30

the hour is most propitious, owing to a combination of causes
never before present, among which may be mentioned the
growing independence of American womanhood ; the enlarged
vision that has come to her through the wonderfully diverse
occupations and professions which she has recently embraced ;
the growing consciousness of her ability to succeed in
almost every vocation of life. The latitude enjoyed by her
in matters of dress in the mountains and seashore resorts ;
the growth of women's gymnasiums ; the emphasis given to
hygienic instruction in schools, and the recent quiet intro-
duction of a perfectly comfortable apparel for morning wear,
which, strange to say, has originated where one would least
expect, among the most fashionable belles of the Empire
city.* This significant innovation which is reported by the
daily press, as becoming quite popular among the young
ladies of the wealthy districts of New York, consists of a
comfortable blouse worn over knickerbocker trousers. Clad
in this comfortable attire, the belles come to breakfast, nor do
they subsequently change their dress during the morning if
they intend remaining indoors. If a sedate or fastidious
caller is announced, a beautiful tea-gown, which is at hand,
is slipped into, and the young lady is appropriately clad to
suit even conventional requirements. The bicycle and lawn
tennis costumes now becoming so popular also exercise a
subtile but marked influence in favor of rational dress reform,
not only giving young ladies the wonderful comfort and
health-o-iving' freedom which for a^es have been denied her
sex, but also by accustoming them to these radically uncon-
ventional costumes. f

*In speakinir i>f tliis ))ractical dress retorm on the jiart of the belles of New York, the
Boston Ua'ihi (iluhr rt'cently observed editorially : The jireat question now agitating
the fashionable women of Fifth Avenue is : " Do you wear knickerbockers? "

Stripped of all apologetic circumlocution, " knickerbockers" are simply loose, easy
trousers, above which IS worn a becoming blouse waist, and thus attired, the belles
of New York come down to breakfast. Nor are the trousers subsequently removed
while the ladies are about the house, unless some conservative caller is announced,
when a stylish tea-gown can be jumijed into in a second, and the lady is in faultless
female costume.

That women should be handicapped in their locomotion in their own homes is
simply a relic of oriental slavery and prudery, and the revolt against it is sensible
and wholesome. That they have come to stay is evident, while improved costumes
for shop girls, and other women engaged in business every day in the year, are certain
to follow in the order of progress.— Boston Globe.

It might be well also for the council to recommend the formation of societies in
each community where social or society gatherings of those interested might be lieM
at stated intervals, at which all members would api^ear in dresses made with special
regard to health, comfort, and beauty, and in which all garments would conform to
the general ideal recommended by tlie council.

t As the paper is being set iip my attention has been attracted to a remarkably
sensible signed editorial in the Boston Sunday Globe, of July 26, by the brilliant

31

Another encouraging sign of
the times is the increasing
demand on the great and
fashionable house of liiberty
& Co., of London, for the
Greek and other simple cos-
tumes by fashionable ladies,
who are using them largely
for home wear. I have re-
produced two recent styles
of dresses made by Liberty.
All fabrics used are rich, soft,
and elegant, and the effect is
said to be gratifying to
lovers of art, as well as far
more healthful and comfor-
table than the conventional
dress. The most impor-
tant fact, however, is the
effect or influence which is
sure to follow this breaking:
away from the
rulingr fash-

Soine of Liberty's recent dresses.
GreciaD Costume.

The

ions in
wealthy cir-
cles. When conventionalism in dress is fully
discredited, practical reform is certain to
follow. The knell of the one means the
triumph of the other.

Believing as I do that the cycle of woman

writer and sensible thinker, Adelaide A. Clafiin, from which I
extract the foUowina: :

Bishop Coxe's fulmiuation against tlie riding of bicycles by
women has attracted considerable attention, but to tlie student
of social movements it is not strange that Bisliop Coxe should
object. The real oddity is that scarcely anybody else, ai)par-
ently, hasobjectei.

Tiiat young girls from the best families should within a short
time have betaken themselves to whirling through the public
thoroughfares, like so many boys, is certainly a new departure
from all old fashioned canons of feminine decorum, at least as
startling as many that have brought down all sorts of thunder-
bolts from pulpit and press. Had it been a prerequisite that
an amendment to the United States Constitution, or even a
statute of a State Legislature should be obtained, the girls would
doubtless liave liad to wait many a weary year.

It is not long since another church dignitary. Dr. Morgan Dix,
objected to tlie entrance of girls into universities, because it
was not " proper for young women to be exposed to the gaze
ofyoung men, many of whom were less beut upon learning tlian
upon amusement."

Some of Liberty's
recent dresses.
The Juliet.

32

has dawned, and that through lier humanity will reach a
higher and nobler civilization than the world has yet known,
I feel the most profound interest in all that affects her
health, comfort, and happiness ; for as I have before observed,
her exaltation means the elevation of the race. A broader
liberty and more liberal meed of justice for her mean a higher
civilization, and the solution of weighty and fundamental
problems which will never be equitably adjusted until we
have brought into political and social life more of the
splendid spirit of altruism, which is one of her most conspic-
uous characteristics. I believe that morality, education,
practical reform, and enduring progress wait upon her com-
plete emancipation from the bondage of fashion, prejudice,
superstition, and conservatism.

However little she may realize it, every girl who rides her steel horse is a vivid
illustration of one of the greatest waves of progress of this century, the advancement
of women in freedom and (ii)ii()rtunity.

A wise physician once said that the opinion that a good woman should stay closely at
home had killed more women than any other one cause. In the days of "our grand-
mothers the suggestion of regular gymnastic training or athletics for girls would
have been received with horror. It was hardly proper for a woman to have any
knowledge of the construction of her physical system.

It is a curious historical fact that the first women lecturers upon physiology were
women's rights women, and viewed by the majority of people as dangerous to female
modesty, while the Ladies' Physiological Institute in Boston was at first much
disapproved of by the clergy. " So long, too, as old-fashioned " stays " (laced up
sometimes by the aid of equally old-fashioned bed-posts) remained in vogue, neither
physiology nor athletics stood much chance with women.

But the often derided dress reformer has had her way, to a great extent. Bathing
dresses, gymnastic and tennis suits which would have frightened an eighteenth
century dame into one of her favorite fainting fits.

Meanwhile the girls have mounted their bicycles. Bless you, my children; what
endless vistas of good times are before .you! "What glorious landscape views and
ocean moonrises, what freedom, what fresh, airy delight in young life and strength !

Already one young doctor has departed with his bride on "a wedding tour to Texas,
each upon a bicycle. Other strange affairs will no doubt take place. By and by
the bishops will see no more irreverence in bidding Godspeed to girls starting on a
journey to California upon bicycles thau to girls departing to Europe on a steamship.

THE ARENA.

The Arena, since its inception, has been more liospitable to women
tlian any other a^reat review imblished in the civilized world. It has also
ever been the champion of all means and measures looking toward the
emancipation of woman. As an illustration of these important points we
call attention to the Arena for Aujjust, 1892, which contains papers by

Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. B. P. Underwood,

Frances B. Willard, Mrs. Frances E. Russell,

Helen H. Gardener, Louise Chandler Moulton,
Mrs. Gen. Lew Wallace,

and a sjmposium on WomtMis ('liit)s, to which the foUowini; ladies con-
tribute : —

May "Wright Sewall, Ellen M. Mitchell,

Mary E. Mumford, Mary A. Livermore,

Mary E. Boyce, Kate Gannett Wells,

Louise Chandler Moulton, Katharine Nobles,

Hester M. Poole, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith.
Annah Robinson Watson,

The September Arena for 1892 contains a symposium on AVoman's
Dress, to which such well-known writers as the foHowinn' will contribute:

Octavia W. Bates, Grace Greenwood,

Frances E. Russell, May Wright Sewall,

Mrs. E. M. King, Elizabeth Smith Miller.
Frances M. Steele,

Tills will be the most imi>ortant symposium on Woman's Dress that
has ever appeared in a leadini^' ma,<;azine.

It is the determination of the management to make the Arena indis-
pensable to all thoughtful, wide-awake women.

The Opinion of the Highest Literary Authority of Boston.

'I'he hold that this magazine lias taken upon the public is due wholly
and solely to its intrinsic merits, and not to any elaborate or shrewd
methods of advertising. It has won its own way, and in a straightforward
and legitimate manner. No magazine in the country has taken higher
ground in the treatment of (juestions dealing with social and political
reform. Its contributors include some of the l)est know n n)en of the day
in the walks of science, theology, and general literature, and there is no
topic of public interest but readers may look to see broadly, thoroughly,
and impartially treated. — Erenincj Transcript, Boston. Mass.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $5.00, SINGLE COPIES, 50 cts.

A sample copy of the Arena will be forwarded, postpaid, for 20 cents,
to any person wishing to examine the same with a view to subscribing.

ARENA PUBLISHING CO., COPLEY SQ., BOSTON, MASS.

Just Out.

A Brilliant Realistic Novel by the Author of
"Is this Your Son, My Lord?

°5e

ublishincL" .,

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"H 44 81

PRICE, PAPER, 50 CENTS; CLOTH, $1.00.
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